A wife cheating on her older, generally past-it husband is a common theme in many a story. Not funny, especially if you've been down that well-worn path of infidelity and been caught out, as Marcia, wife of Gerald, discovers. And what's more embarrassing is that the man decorating their study knows all about her adultery, as he can't help overhearing the two wives arguing, when Jane, wife of Marcia's lover, Brian, confronts Marcia in her own house about her misbehaviour with her husband.

Marcia is reduced to a nervous wreck by her rival's tirade and there's more to come when Jane vows to come back at 6pm that same evening and reveal all to Marcia's doting husband on his return from work. Then Marcia discovers that there's more to Walter, her inquisitive decorator, than just a paint brush. His real love is the stage and he only decorates to get by. Eager to help, he suggests substituting someone else for her husband, so that when the vengeful Jane returns to reveal all, her adultery will remain undiscovered by Gerald. But who to play the part, that's the question. Not a family friend: too risky.

Of course, it is obvious what will follow in this excellent comedy written by Donald Churchill, a television writer and actor, and starring Leslie Grantham, Sarah Manners, late of BBC1's Casualty, and the less well-known but adept stage actor Sabina Franklyn.

The thespian decorator is recruited to play the cuckolded husband, but Churchill makes his character work for the audience's chuckles. For Walter won't take the part unless Marcia takes him seriously, and is annoyed when she laughs at his speech from Othello. Only after he has in turn humiliated her by making her sing a comic song does he agree to carry out his part in the great deception, and goes at it with a will, wearing a false wig and moustache that sets Marcia into fits of laughter. But somehow the deception is carried off, and Walter - a failure in marriage, acting and life generally - suddenly finds himself the centre of attention, as first Jane and then Marcia partake of his physical charms, something they would not even think about if he was dressed in painter's overalls. But put him in one of Marcia's husband's Savile Row suits and there's no stopping him.

Grantham is excellent as Walter, hitting it off perfectly with his two female co-stars and showing great comic timing.

WALTER the decorator turns out to be something of a smooth operator.

He is called to a job in an Edwardian mansion flat but it transpires this is not his first choice of occupation.

There is the first hint of the unusual about him when he turns on his music and classical sounds fill the air.

Leslie Grantham, as Walter, reveals his talent for comedy in this Donald Churchill creation. He rises to the challenge of delivering a character which transforms from the unusual to the bizarre.

The stranger the behaviour, the more Grantham seems to revel in the role.

He stars alongside Sabina Franklyn as Marcia, a rather plummy woman accused of adultery.

Ms Franklyn is a hugely successful actress and this production is a great vehicle for her talents.

She is such a strong force throughout the play as unruffled calm gives way to hysteria as Marcia deals with her domestic crisis.

Sarah Manners is in sparkling form as Jane whose husband appears to be a serial adulterer and decides to vent her anger in a most creative way.

The Decorator is quite unusual in its structure. It doesn't start out as an obvious comedy but instead eases itself into humour first in a quite a dry way and eventually leaning largely towards farce.